A system-wide network outage Tuesday evening led to the cancellation of more than 40 flights in and out of Billy Bishop airport, according to Porter Airlines.

Porter spokesperson Brad Cicero said the main difficulty was with Navitaire, a reservation and flight planning system. He said the problems began just before 6 p.m. and that he hoped the issue would be resolved later Tuesday night.

Porter said the outage also affected its website, call centre and reservation system.

For three Porter passengers delayed at Billy Bishop, their cancelled flight to Ottawa added insult to injury after an already difficult day.

Sylvie Cardinal and her co-workers, Gail Clement and Kim Curran, missed a business meeting Tuesday morning after their flight from Ottawa was an hour late due to fog.

As the time ticked by Tuesday night, they realized they were running out of options to get home.

“There’s no bus, there’s no plane, there’s no train,” Cardinal said. “Once you’re stranded, there’s no other means to get out of Toronto.”

“And there’s no hotel! They’re all booked up,” she added.

The women stressed the Porter staff have been very helpful, and had offered to find them a hotel in Mississauga.

But “it’s been a very long day,” Clement said.

Porter noted that other airlines were also affected.

Porter tweeted: “We, and several other airlines, are affected by system-wide network outages. Thanks for your patience while we work to provide updates.”

A spokesperson from Pearson International Airport said their flights were not affected and that they had no computer issues.

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